🔖 VersionGem

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🌻 Synopsis

Give your next library an introspectable Version module without breaking your Gemspec.

MyLib::Version.to_s # => "1.2.3.rc3"
MyLib::Version.major # => 1
MyLib::Version.minor # => 2
MyLib::Version.patch # => 3
MyLib::Version.pre # => "rc3"
MyLib::Version.to_a # => [1, 2, 3, "rc3"]
MyLib::Version.to_h # => { major: 1, minor: 2, patch: 3, pre: "rc3" }

This library was extracted from the gem oauth2.

This gem has no runtime dependencies.

🧐 Alternatives

This gem has a very niche purpose, which is:

1. providing introspection of a Version module based on a VERSION constant string within it,
2. while not interfering with gemspec parsing where the VERSION string is traditionally used,
3. allowing 100% test coverage of Ruby code, including the Version module.

As proof in the pudding, this gem achieves 100% test coverage for lines and branches, all 118 and 4 of them, respectively; coverage enabled in part by patterns from this library. You can make it happen for your library too!

If this isn't precisely your use case you may be better off looking at versionaire, a wonderful, performant, well-maintained, gem from the Alchemists, or version_sorter from GitHub.

For more discussion about this see issue #2

💡 Info you can shake a stick at

Tokens to Remember
Works with JRuby
Works with Truffle Ruby
Works with MRI Ruby 3
Works with MRI Ruby 2
Source
Documentation
Compliance
Style
Support
Maintainer 🎖️
... 💖	🧊 🐙 🛖 🧪

Compatibility

Compatible with MRI Ruby 2.3+, and concordant releases of JRuby, and TruffleRuby.

🚚 Amazing test matrix was brought to you by	🔎 appraisal2 🔎
👟 Check it out!	✨ github.com/appraisal-rb/appraisal2 ✨

Federated DVCS

Find this repo on other forges

Federated DVCS Repository	Status	Issues	PRs	Wiki	CI	Discussions
🧪 ruby-oauth/version_gem on GitLab	The Truth	💚	💚	💚	🏀 Tiny Matrix	➖
🧊 ruby-oauth/version_gem on CodeBerg	An Ethical Mirror (Donate)	💚	💚	➖	⭕️ No Matrix	➖
🐙 ruby-oauth/version_gem on GitHub	Another Mirror	💚	💚	➖	💯 Full Matrix	💚
🎮️ Discord Server		Let's	talk	about	this	library!

Enterprise Support

Available as part of the Tidelift Subscription.

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  📊@Pointy Haired Boss: An enterprise support subscription is "never gonna let you down", and supports open source maintainers

Alternatively:

• 
• 
• 

✨ Installation

Install the gem and add to the application's Gemfile by executing:

bundle add version_gem

If bundler is not being used to manage dependencies, install the gem by executing:

gem install version_gem

🔒 Secure Installation

For Medium or High Security Installations

This gem is cryptographically signed, and has verifiable SHA-256 and SHA-512 checksums by stone_checksums. Be sure the gem you install hasn’t been tampered with by following the instructions below.

Add my public key (if you haven’t already, expires 2045-04-29) as a trusted certificate:

gem cert --add <(curl -Ls https://raw.github.com/galtzo-floss/certs/main/pboling.pem)

You only need to do that once. Then proceed to install with:

gem install version_gem -P HighSecurity

The HighSecurity trust profile will verify signed gems, and not allow the installation of unsigned dependencies.

If you want to up your security game full-time:

bundle config set --global trust-policy MediumSecurity

MediumSecurity instead of HighSecurity is necessary if not all the gems you use are signed.

NOTE: Be prepared to track down certs for signed gems and add them the same way you added mine.

⚙️ Configuration

In the standard bundle gem my_lib code you get the following in lib/my_lib/version.rb:

module MyLib
  VERSION = "0.1.0"
end

Change it to a nested Version namespace (the one implied by the path => namespace convention):

module MyLib
  module Version
    VERSION = "0.1.0"
  end
end

Now add the following near the top of the file the manages requiring external libraries. Using the same example of bundle gem my_lib, this would be lib/my_lib.rb.

require "version_gem"

Then, add the following wherever you want in the same file (recommend the bottom).

MyLib::Version.class_eval do
  extend VersionGem::Basic
end

🔧 Basic Usage

Now you have some version introspection methods available:

MyLib::Version.to_s # => "0.1.0"
MyLib::Version.major # => 0
MyLib::Version.minor # => 1
MyLib::Version.patch # => 0
MyLib::Version.pre # => ""
MyLib::Version.to_a # => [0, 1, 0]
MyLib::Version.to_h # => { major: 0, minor: 1, patch: 0, pre: "" }

Side benefit #1

You can reference the version from your gemspec, keeping the version string DRY, and still get accurate code coverage!

# Get the GEMFILE_VERSION without *require* "my_gem/version", for code coverage accuracy
# See: https://github.com/simplecov-ruby/simplecov/issues/557#issuecomment-2630782358
# Kernel.load because load is overloaded in RubyGems during gemspec evaluation
Kernel.load("lib/my_gem/version.rb")
gem_version = MyGem::Version::VERSION
MyGem::Version.send(:remove_const, :VERSION)

Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
  # ...
  spec.version = gem_version
end

Side benefit #2

Your version.rb file now abides the Ruby convention of directory / path matching the namespace / class!

Epoch Usage (Epoch Semantic Versioning, as of version 1.1.7)

In the standard bundle gem my_lib code you get the following in lib/my_lib/version.rb:

module MyLib
  VERSION = "0.1.0"
end

Change it to a nested Version namespace (the one implied by the path => namespace convention):

module MyLib
  module Version
    VERSION = "0.1.0"
  end
end

The Epoch and Major versions are derived from the formula:

{EPOCH * 1000 + MAJOR}.MINOR.PATCH

This will start your library with the following version segments:

• epoch = 0
• major = 0
• minor = 1
• patch = 0
• pre = nil

And the segments are defined as:

EPOCH: Increment when you make significant or groundbreaking changes.
MAJOR: Increment when you make minor incompatible API changes.
MINOR: Increment when you add functionality in a backwards-compatible manner.
PATCH: Increment when you make backwards-compatible bug fixes.

Therefore, if you set your version number to:

VERSION = "27016.42.86-pre.7"

You will get the following version segments:

{
  epoch: 27,
  major: 16,
  minor: 42,
  patch: 86,
  pre: "pre-7",
}

Now add the following near the top of the file the manages requiring external libraries. Using the same example of bundle gem my_lib, this would be lib/my_lib.rb.

require "version_gem"

Then, add the following wherever you want in the same file (recommend the bottom).

MyLib::Version.class_eval do
  extend VersionGem::Epoch
end

And now you have some version introspection methods available:

MyLib::Version.to_s # => "1024.3.8"
MyLib::Version.epoch # => 1
MyLib::Version.major # => 24
MyLib::Version.minor # => 3
MyLib::Version.patch # => 8
MyLib::Version.pre # => ""
MyLib::Version.to_a # => [1, 24, 3, 8]
MyLib::Version.to_h # => { epoch: 1, major: 24, minor: 3, patch: 8, pre: "" }

Usage with Zeitwerk

The pattern of version.rb breaking the ruby convention of directory / path matching the namespace / class is so entrenched that the zeitwerk library has a special carve-out for it. 🥺 RubyGems using this "bad is actually good" pattern are encouraged to use Zeitwerk.for_gem.

Do not do that ^ if you use this gem.

Simple Zeitwerk Example

Create a gem like this (keeping with the MyLib theme):

bundle gem my_lib

Then following the usage instructions above, you edit your primary namespace file @ lib/my_lib.rb, but inject the Zeitwerk loader.

# frozen_string_literal: true

require_relative "my_lib/version"

module MyLib
  class Error < StandardError; end
  # Your code goes here...
end

loader = Zeitwerk::Loader.new
loader.tag = File.basename(__FILE__, ".rb")
loader.push_dir("lib/my_lib", namespace: MyLib)
loader.setup # ready!
loader.eager_load(force: true) # optional!

MyLib::Version.class_eval do
  extend VersionGem::Basic
end

Complex Zeitwerk Example

Maybe you would like to contribute one?

Query Ruby Version (as of version 1.1.2)

In Continuous Integration environments for libraries that run against many versions of Ruby, I often need to configure things discretely per Ruby version, and doing so forced me to repeat a significant amount of boilerplate code across each project.

Thus VersionGem::Ruby was born. It has the two optimized methods I always need:

engine = "ruby"
version = "2.7.7"
gte_minimum_version?(version, engine)  # Is the current version of Ruby greater than or equal to some minimum?

major = 3
minor = 2
actual_minor_version?(major, minor, engine) # Is the current version of Ruby precisely a specific minor version of Ruby?

Version::Ruby is not loaded by default. If you want to use it, you must require it as:

require "version_gem/ruby"

Normally I do this in my spec/spec_helper.rb, and/or .simplecov files. Occasionally in my Rakefile.

Caveat

This design keeps your version.rb file compatible with the way gemspec files use them. This means that the introspection is not available within the gemspec. The enhancement from this gem is only available at runtime.

RSpec Matchers

In spec_helper.rb:

require "version_gem/rspec"

Then you can write a test like:

RSpec.describe(MyLib::Version) do
  it_behaves_like "a Version module", described_class
end

# Or, if you want to write your own, here is the á la carte menu:
RSpec.describe(MyLib::Version) do
  it "is a Version module" do
    expect(described_class).is_a?(Module)
    expect(described_class).to(have_version_constant)
    expect(described_class).to(have_version_as_string)
    expect(described_class.to_s).to(be_a(String))
    expect(described_class).to(have_major_as_integer)
    expect(described_class).to(have_epoch_as_integer)
    expect(described_class).to(have_minor_as_integer)
    expect(described_class).to(have_patch_as_integer)
    expect(described_class).to(have_pre_as_nil_or_string)
    # This would be %i[epoch major minor patch pre] for epoch version schemes
    expect(described_class.to_h.keys).to(match_array(%i[major minor patch pre]))
    expect(described_class.to_a).to(be_a(Array))
  end
end

🦷 FLOSS Funding

While ruby-oauth tools are free software and will always be, the project would benefit immensely from some funding. Raising a monthly budget of... "dollars" would make the project more sustainable.

We welcome both individual and corporate sponsors! We also offer a wide array of funding channels to account for your preferences (although currently Open Collective is our preferred funding platform).

If you're working in a company that's making significant use of ruby-oauth tools we'd appreciate it if you suggest to your company to become a ruby-oauth sponsor.

You can support the development of ruby-oauth tools via GitHub Sponsors, Liberapay, PayPal, Open Collective and Tidelift.

📍 NOTE
If doing a sponsorship in the form of donation is problematic for your company from an accounting standpoint, we'd recommend the use of Tidelift, where you can get a support-like subscription instead.

Open Collective for Individuals

No backers yet. Be the first!

Support us with a monthly donation and help us continue our activities. [Become a backer]

Open Collective for Organizations

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Become a sponsor and get your logo on our README on GitHub with a link to your site. [Become a sponsor]

Another way to support open-source

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
—Anne Frank

I’m driven by a passion to foster a thriving open-source community – a space where people can tackle complex problems, no matter how small. Revitalizing libraries that have fallen into disrepair, and building new libraries focused on solving real-world challenges, are my passions — totaling 79 hours of FLOSS coding over just the past seven days, a pretty regular week for me. I was recently affected by layoffs, and the tech jobs market is unwelcoming. I’m reaching out here because your support would significantly aid my efforts to provide for my family, and my farm (11 🐔 chickens, 2 🐶 dogs, 3 🐰 rabbits, 8 🐈‍ cats).

If you work at a company that uses my work, please encourage them to support me as a corporate sponsor. My work on gems you use might show up in bundle fund.

I’m developing a new library, floss_funding, designed to empower open-source developers like myself to get paid for the work we do, in a sustainable way. Please give it a look.

Floss-Funding.dev: 👉️ No network calls. 👉️ No tracking. 👉️ No oversight. 👉️ Minimal crypto hashing. 💡 Easily disabled nags

🔐 Security

See SECURITY.md.

🤝 Contributing

If you need some ideas of where to help, you could work on adding more code coverage, or if it is already 💯 (see below) check reek, issues, or PRs, or use the gem and think about how it could be better.

We so if you make changes, remember to update it.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for more detailed instructions.

🚀 Release Instructions

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Code Coverage

🪇 Code of Conduct

Everyone interacting with this project's codebases, issue trackers, chat rooms and mailing lists agrees to follow the .

🌈 Contributors

Made with contributors-img.

Also see GitLab Contributors: https://gitlab.com/ruby-oauth/version_gem/-/graphs/main

⭐️ Star History

📌 Versioning

This Library adheres to . Violations of this scheme should be reported as bugs. Specifically, if a minor or patch version is released that breaks backward compatibility, a new version should be immediately released that restores compatibility. Breaking changes to the public API will only be introduced with new major versions.

dropping support for a platform is both obviously and objectively a breaking change
—Jordan Harband (@ljharb, maintainer of SemVer) in SemVer issue 716

I understand that policy doesn't work universally ("exceptions to every rule!"), but it is the policy here. As such, in many cases it is good to specify a dependency on this library using the Pessimistic Version Constraint with two digits of precision.

For example:

spec.add_dependency("version_gem", "~> 1.1")

📌 Is "Platform Support" part of the public API? More details inside.

SemVer should, IMO, but doesn't explicitly, say that dropping support for specific Platforms is a breaking change to an API. It is obvious to many, but not all, and since the spec is silent, the bike shedding is endless.

To get a better understanding of how SemVer is intended to work over a project's lifetime, read this article from the creator of SemVer:

• "Major Version Numbers are Not Sacred"

See CHANGELOG.md for a list of releases.

📄 License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License . See LICENSE.txt for the official Copyright Notice.

© Copyright

• Copyright (c) 2022-2025 Peter H. Boling, of Galtzo.com , and version_gem contributors.

🤑 A request for help

Maintainers have teeth and need to pay their dentists. After getting laid off in an RIF in March and filled with many dozens of rejections, I'm now spending ~60+ hours a week building open source tools. I'm hoping to be able to pay for my kids' health insurance this month, so if you value the work I am doing, I need your support. Please consider sponsoring me or the project.

To join the community or get help 👇️ Join the Discord.

To say "thanks for maintaining such a great tool" ☝️ Join the Discord or 👇️ send money.

💌 💌 💌

Please give the project a star ⭐ ♥.

Thanks for RTFM. ☺️